Updated on: Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Marathi is Maharashtra’s official language, but Nagpur University (NU) does not seem to agree. Students who enrolled for the third year in the law faculty at NU, where a new syllabus has been introduced, were surprised to see Marathi listed as a foreign language.
“In our third year we have to choose a foreign language. The university has offered only two options: French and Marathi,” said a student. A teacher said, “It is an irony that Marathi is called a foreign language in Maharashtra.”
The university has a strange explanation. Sanjay Bahekar, NU spokesperson, said, “Marathi will have to be called a foreign language as many foreign students come to Nagpur to study law. For them, Marathi will obviously be a foreign language.”
Contradicting him, the student said, “We, too, can enrol for Marathi though it certainly is not foreign to us. I have opted for French as I studied it in high school. It’s a scoring subject.”
Bahekar suggested that TOI speak to the academics department, but there was no response despite several calls.
Another university official said this was certainly not an oversight, but “goes to show that not enough thought was given while preparing the academic structure”. The official said: “Since the new syllabus has been introduced from this year, there are bound to be some hiccups. However, the NU could have simply used the term ‘second language’ and then given various options to students. The fact that they used the term ‘foreign language’ is shocking.”